Senator Dean Heller voted to take the side of corporate communication giants like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T over the side of privacy for his Nevada constituents. “This resolution is a direct attack on consumer rights, on privacy, on rules that afford basic protection against intrusive and illegal interference with consumers’ use of social media sites and websites that often they talk for granted,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) said ahead ofthe Senate vote. Clearly Senator Dean Heller didn’t listen to those words.
Reputlican “corporatists” are using the Congressional Review Act to pretty much gut any regulation put in place during the Obama administration that gets in their way to making profits hand over fist. So, this last week, corporatists in the Senate took the lead on CRA resolutions, passing a resolution (S.J. Res. 34 ) which disapproves of an FCC rule concerning privacy rules for internet service providers, gutting those rules on a pure partisan party line vote (50 Republican Yeas, 48 Democrat Nays).
Republican corporatists in the Senate voted to undo FCC’s broadband privacy rules. If also passed in the House and signed by the president, S.J. Res. 34 will make sure the FCC can not interfere with internet service providers (ISPs) being able to sell user data, including browsing history and location data, without user consent. The bill promoting the communications giants’ agenda now heads to the House.